In an electrophotograph scheme adopted in an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine and a laser printer, a surface of a photoreceptor (image carrier) is charged by a charging device, and then exposure is carried out by an exposing device so as to form an electrostatic latent image, and the electrostatic latent image is developed by a developing device, thereby forming a toner image. The toner image is electrostatically transferred to a transfer medium such as a recording sheet or the like by a transfer device, and then the toner image transferred onto the recording sheet is fixed by a fixing apparatus, thereby forming an image on the recording sheet.
Incidentally, the electrophotographic image forming apparatus transfers a part of the toner image formed on the photoreceptor onto the recording sheet in a transfer step, but rest of the toner remains on the surface of the photoreceptor also after the transfer step. Thus, if the toner remaining on the photoreceptor is left, image quality drops in subsequent image formation. Therefore, the electrophotographic image forming apparatus includes a cleaning device for removing the toner remaining on the photoreceptor. As the cleaning device, a device having a contact member (blade, brush, and the like) which comes into contact with the photoreceptor is widely used.
Further, there is proposed the following technique: A lubricant is applied to the surface of the photoreceptor so as to drop surface energy of the photoreceptor so that toner less adheres to the surface of the photoreceptor, which allows toner to be more easily cleaned and reduces a friction coefficient between the photoreceptor and the cleaning device, thereby less eroding a film of the photoreceptor (for example, see Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 189509/2005 (Tokukai 2005-189509)(Publication date: Jul. 14, 2005)).
However, according to the technique of Patent Document 1, the lubricant is applied to the image carrier before the toner remaining on the image carrier reaches the cleaning device, that is, the lubricant is applied to the image carrier from which the remaining toner has not been cleaned by the cleaning device. Thus, the toner adheres to the lubricant applying means, so that it is difficult to uniformly apply the lubricant to the surface of the image carrier in a stable manner for an extended period of time.
Further, according to the technique of Patent Document 1, the lubricant and a lubricant supply brush are disposed in the cleaning device, so that the toner removed from the surface of the image carrier by the cleaning device may taint the lubricant and the lubricant supply brush. In this case, it is more difficult to uniformly apply the lubricant in a stable manner.
Further, according to the technique of patent Document 1, a large part of the lubricant applied to the surface of the image carrier is removed as well as the toner, so that the lubricant is less efficiently applied, which results in greater consumption of the lubricant.